Texas Gov. Abbott says border officials have seized enough fentanyl to kill nearly 20 million people

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday made the stunning claim that border patrol officials have seized enough fentanyl at the U.S.-Mexico border to kill the entire population of New York State, nearly 20 million people. 

Abbott made the claim during an interview on Fox News, slamming the Biden administration and claiming federal officials "either don’t have a clue what’s going on or they are purposefully misleading their fellow Americans."

"I gotta tell you, there’s a new dynamic about what’s going on at the border that Americans need to know about," he said, "and that is increased apprehension of fentanyl coming across the border. Yes, there may be people coming across but there are dangerous drugs coming across the border."

"We had almost an 800% increase April over April of the amount of fentanyl that has been apprehended by the Texas Department of Public Safety," he said. "We have obtained enough fentanyl coming across the border to kill every single person in the state of New York."

Fentanyl is an extremely powerful opioid the usage of which has been growing in the U.S. in recent years and which has concurrently been responsible for a high number of overdoses.